Using the phonemic chart

From the Teaching English website.

How language transformed humanity

From www.ted.com

Biologist Mark Pagel shares an intriguing theory about why humans evolved our complex system of language. He suggests that language is a piece of "social technology" that allowed early human tribes to access a powerful new tool: cooperation.

Profanity filter cock-up

The Barnet Times uses a profanity filter on its web site to prevent the posting of obscene language. Fair enough, you might think. But what constitutes obscene language?

Earlier today, a message was posted on their web site which included the phrase ‘cock-up’. This was redacted by the software and published as ****-up.

The Cambridge University Press on-line dictionary defines cock-up simply as: “something that is done wrong or badly”. According to “The Origins and Common Usage of British Swear-words” published by the BBC:

“…the phrase ‘cock-up’ might appear to have come about in a similar way to ‘balls-up’, its origins are actually in beer making. If the batch went bad, they turned the cock (i.e. tap, or faucet) up to drain the barrel.”

Leaving aside the question of whether the word ‘cock’ in this context was obscene, it is clear that profanity filters are of limited use. The substitute word ‘kok’ was accepted by the newspaper’s software. Changing a few letters will beat the filters without detracting from the intended meaning.

This was exemplified in the classic Monty Python ‘Travel Agent’ sketch featuring Eric Idle as a customer with a speech impediment, which made him pronounce the letter ‘c’ as ‘b’. Upon realising that he could substitute the letter ‘k’ instead, he declared: “what a silly bunt!”

Unfortunately, the BBC cut this line from the broadcast version, although it is included in the album Monty Python's Previous Record.

Interspecies communication

Award for Chomsky critic

The British Academy has awarded the 2011 Wiley prize to American developmental psychologist, Professor Dr Michael Tomasello.

Professor Tomasello also works on child language development and is a strong critic of the generative grammar theory, expounded by Noam Chomsky, subscribing instead to the cognitive linguistics school of linguistic theory.

This blog is an ardent supporter of anyone who can trash Chomskian theory!

IVF children develop language skills faster than ‘unplanned’ babies

The British Medical Journal has published findings of a report:

“To investigate how pregnancy planning, time to conception, and infertility treatment influence cognitive development at ages 3 and 5.”

The results suggest that children conceived through fertility treatment start school with language skills up to 8 months more advanced than children born after unplanned pregnancies.

“Twitter Ye Not” says James Bond’s boss

Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5, claims that Twitter is stopping children from reading. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, she says:

“I think much of the Twittering and e-mailing and texting and all that sort of stuff that children go in for now may be taking their eyes off reading fiction. When I was young we read more than the average child reads now.”

Twitter requires users to compose messages of 140 characters or less and, arguably, this teaches people the value of succinctness - a trait I have yet to master! However, a beautifully crafted piece of prose is an art form in itself and if we wish to encourage future generations of writers, we must also encourage children to read more books.

Take note any councillor who thinks that closing libraries is a good idea. Your actions will lead to the destruction of humanity.

The South North divide

Bill Cosby has difficulty understanding a Southerner's accent, especially when she tries to explain that North is 90 miles South-East of Due West!

Mancs Go Home!

According to the Manchester Evening News, staff at Selfridges have been banned from saying “hi ya”, “see ya” and “cheers” to customers, as these phrases are considered unprofessional and too Northern.

Strewth!

Plurals

BBC Radio 2 DJ, Simon Mayo, discusses plurals with Dr Peter Jones, MBE, founder of the Friends of Classics website.